''Aspalathus millefolia'' is a species of ''

Aspalathus ''Aspalathus'' is a genus of flowering plants in the family Fabaceae. The yellow flowers and spiny habit of some species have suggested a resemblance to ''Ulex europaeus'', the thorny " English gorse" Accordingly, "Cape Gorse" has been proposed ...

'' shrub, which occurs in the

Overberg __NOTOC__ Overberg is a region in South Africa to the east of Cape Town beyond the Hottentots-Holland mountains. It lies along the Western Cape Province's south coast between the Cape Peninsula and the region known as the Garden Route in the e ...

region of the

Western Cape Province The Western Cape is a province of South Africa, situated on the south-western coast of the country. It is the fourth largest of the nine provinces with an area of , and the third most populous, with an estimated 7 million inhabitants in 2020 ...

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...

Description

A low branching shrub, with many tiny (1-3 x 0,2mm), thin, linear, obtuse-tipped, slightly incurved leaves. The leaves are green and sometimes sparsely hairy. The bracts are not stalked and the keels are short and wide. It somewhat resembles its relative ''

Aspalathus ciliaris ''Aspalathus'' is a genus of flowering plants in the family Fabaceae. The yellow flowers and spiny habit of some species have suggested a resemblance to ''Ulex europaeus'', the thorny " English gorse" Accordingly, "Cape Gorse" has been proposed ...

''.

Distribution and habitat

This species is indigenous to the

region, in the southern

. Its habitat is typically rocky clay-rich soils of

shale Shale is a fine-grained, clastic sedimentary rock formed from mud that is a mix of flakes of clay minerals (hydrous aluminium phyllosilicates, e.g. kaolin, Al2 Si2 O5( OH)4) and tiny fragments (silt-sized particles) of other minerals, especial ...

and alluvial terraces, where it grows in a mixture of

Fynbos Fynbos (; meaning fine plants) is a small belt of natural shrubland or heathland vegetation located in the Western Cape and Eastern Cape provinces of South Africa. This area is predominantly coastal and mountainous, with a Mediterranean clim ...

and

Renosterveld Renosterveld is a term used for one of the major plant communities and vegetation types of the Cape Floristic Region (Cape Floral Kingdom) which is located in southwestern and southeastern South Africa, in southernmost Africa. It is an ecoregion ...

vegetation. It occurs from near Caledon in the west, to the area north of

Bredasdorp Bredasdorp is a town in the Southern Overberg region of the Western Cape, South Africa, and the main economic and service hub of that region. It lies on the northern edge of the Agulhas Plain, about south-east of Cape Town and north of Cape Agul ...

and towards

Malgas Malgas (or Malagas) is a settlement on the right (southwest) bank of the Breede River in the Overberg region of the Western Cape. It is situated 25 kilometres north-west of the Breede River mouth at Witsand, and 30 kilometres south-east ...

, as well as around

Swellendam Swellendam is the fifth oldest town in South Africa (after Cape Town, Stellenbosch, Simon's Town, and Paarl), a town with 17,537 inhabitants situated in the Western Cape province. The town has over 50 provincial heritage sites, most of them b ...

and

Heidelberg Heidelberg (; Palatine German language, Palatine German: ''Heidlberg'') is a city in the States of Germany, German state of Baden-Württemberg, situated on the river Neckar in south-west Germany. As of the 2016 census, its population was 159,914 ...

. It occurs as far east as the town of Riversdale.''Aspalathus millefolia'' - SANBI Redlist
/ref>

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q15504095 Crotalarieae Endemic flora of South Africa Flora of the Cape Provinces Fynbos Renosterveld